


Susceptible to Getting Hurt

by page394



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hurt Harry, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Louis, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-29
Updated: 2013-11-29
Packaged: 2018-01-02 22:52:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1062604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/page394/pseuds/page394
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I've always wanted to be one of those people who didn't really care that much about what people thought about them... But I just don't think I am." - Harry</p>
            </blockquote>





	Susceptible to Getting Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> Hey beautiful people!  
> This is my first fic ever and I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Work in the music industry isn’t an easy task; there’s the pressure from the press, from the management, from the fans, from the haters, and, of course, the biggest pressure of them all: from themselves. There’s always that push you give yourself to go a little bit further, to be a little bit better, the thought that you have to please everyone. Honestly, not a walk in the park, and as hard as you try, sometimes, things just don’t go the way you want them to.

They had just done one of their usual performances, and the crowd had gone wild, like always. But, in their opinion, the performance wasn’t good, far from their usual smooth and flawless ones; their voices were a little bit off, their tune, even their sync wasn’t right.

It wasn’t anybody’s fault, just one of those days.

They had left the building and gone straight to the car waiting at the door, once inside, Louis immediately noticed that something was wrong.  
Harry was unusually quiet, with his eyes down casted, staring directly at the phone tightly held in his hand. Harry was having a hard time, he took everything people said personally, and he had trouble grasping the whole “nobody’s fault thing”, and doing a great job creating a whole “exclusive Harry’s fault” thing.

There were a lot of bickering and joking going on between the other three members of the band, but Harry seemed absorbed and oblivious to them – and them to him, for that matter. Louis took the opportunity to try to figure out what was wrong with his best friend. He pressed himself closer to Harry, putting a hand on his leg. 

“Are you alright mate?” Louis whispered softly

Overly bright and pained eyes looked up; the amount of _hurt_ behind them took Louis by surprise, making him feel a tug at his heart, while an urge to take it away and a wave of protectiveness washed over him.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He asked again, rubbing his hand up and down Harry’s leg.

“Nothing, I’m fi-“Harry shook his head, but Louis cut him mid-sentence.

“Please don’t lie” Louis begged as Harry looked straight at him, eyes going soft and more misty, he sighed before replying. 

“Okay, but can we not talk about it right now?” Harry asked softly, lowering his gaze again, his voice was barely a whisper.

“Yeah, of course” Louis took his hand out of Harry’s leg, placing it around the boy’s shoulders, squeezing it lightly “Whatever you need, ok?” Harry leaned into the embrace, relaxing against Louis.

Meanwhile, Liam, Zayn and Niall were having a singing competition against the radio, all of them singing a part of it out of time, which resulted in a mix of voices and laughing and screaming. It was a more than amusing scene.

A few minutes later they arrived at their destination. Getting out the car quickly, the boys headed to the house, all of them were exhausted after a full schedule day.

“Good day, busy day mates” Liam said through a yawn “and I’d really like to stay and chat, but I’m beat! So cheers, see ya lads in the morning”

“Yeah, me too... I mean... us too” Zayn agreed, dragging a more than sleepy Niall out of the living room “Night everyone”

They all said their goodnights and went to their respective rooms.  
Harry had just put his PJs on when there was a soft knock on the door, before he could say anything the door opened, reviling Louis’s head. The position made it look like his head was floating around unbodied, which made Harry chuckle and shake his head, with a found look on his face.

“I should’ve known you wouldn’t let this go, huh?” He asked as Louis approached.

“Never in a million years” Louis replied half joking, half serious “So, care to tell your awesome friend what happened today?”

“It’s just….” Harry tried to put his thoughts into words, but he just couldn’t find a way, it sounded silly even in his head. He sighed and ran a hand trough his curls “I… completely screwed today’s performance and I…”

“Harry…” Louis tried to interrupt, just to be interrupted himself.

“No, please, just let me finish” Harry walked towards the bed, sitting on the edge, with his head in his hands “It’s just not fair, you know? You and the boys have been working so hard, doing so well, and I just go there and screwed it up. Everyone hated me today, with reason, and I know that… but hating me, they took it out on you. I feel like I have let you down in so many ways and that thought… it _kills_ me… I just don’t want this to go wrong because I’m not good enough … and I just… people are right to hate me, you know? I…” Harry lifted his head, giving a shaky breath and reviling red rimmed eyes and tear stricken cheeks.

“Hey hey hey… c’mon Hazza” Kneeling in front of him, Louis put both hands in Harry’s face, gently wiping away the tears. “I want you to listen to me, ok? You’re a very talented person and we wouldn’t be where we are without you. Yes, our performance sucked today, but Harry, it wasn’t your fault, we were all nervous, we were all a little bit off key…”

“But the critics and the press…”

“I know what they said, but you made one mistake, we all make them, you know that… remember last week when I just couldn’t get that higher note right?”

“No Lou, you were just…”

“Hey, if you don’t make excuses for yourself, don’t make them for me, alright?” Louis got up, sitting beside Harry on the bed “I made a mistake last week, you made a mistake this week, somebody will make a mistake next week… this is life, and we just have to learn from these mistakes, ok?”

Harry nodded, but the look in his eyes told Louis that he didn’t believe half of it.

“I’m gonna say this as many times as I have to Harry, we’re nothing without you. You have an amazing voice, and you’re so talented! What… what did you mean by people are right to hate you? Is that because of the critics? Because I’m telling you mate, they hate everyone…”

“No, that… that was not what I was talking about…” Harry’s eyes were staring down again, making Louis cringe. His eyes were just so gorgeous and Louis liked when they were directed at him. “It’s just… people from the internet, you know? They’ve been sending me these really h-hateful messages… and I…I… _why_ do they hate me Lou?”

Louis felt his heart being ripped out of his chest. Listening close, he could actually hear it breaking into tiny little atomic pieces. Harry was looking at him with pain filled eyes, and he couldn’t believe how anyone could hurt him this much, he was a kid for Christ’s sake! And right now he was looking so young, so lost, so small and confused. As fresh tears started to fall from Harry’s eyes again, Louis lost it, he  just couldn’t watch Harry hutting and suffering this much without doing something to make it alright.

He moved closer, pulling Harry into a much needed hug. The younger boy buried his face into Louis’s neck, gripping his shirt tightly, while sobs wrecked his body.

“I… I don’t… understand Lou… w-why?” Harry tried to squeeze the words between sobs, making him breathless.

“Shh Curly, it’s alright, just let everything out, we’ll talk in a moment…” Louis rested his chin against the top of Harry’s head, running his fingers through the curly hair, as his own tears escaped, blurring his vision until he blinked them away.

Louis could only imagine the atrocities Harry had read in those messages, he received his fair share of hate himself, but the difference was that Harry honestly cared about what other people thought, and while this made him the most caring and loveable person Louis had ever known, it also meant that he would be more susceptible to getting hurt. And Harry getting hurt wasn’t something Louis could live with. Wouldn’t live with.

Eventually, Harry’s sobs slowly decreased; leaving him tired and worn out

“I’m sorry for your shirt” He said giving a small nod towards the tear soaked t-shirt, but never letting go of his hold on it.

“It’s alright” Louis said softly, his voice breaking a little, which made Harry look up through curly bangs.

“Why are you crying Lou?” Harry asked with a child-like innocence that made Louis want to cry even harder.

“How could I not? I hate seeing you hurt like this.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you upset” Harry said, lowering his gaze again.  
  
Louis winced at his thoughtless words. “C’mon, look at me”. Harry reluctantly lifted his head up, turning bloodshot eyes towards his friend.

“This is _not_ your fault” Louis said with as much conviction as he could “I’m not upset with you, I’m only upset with the situation. These people don’t deserve your tears, Harry.”

“After the performance…I- I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself, I guess… I picked up my phone and went on twitter… people were saying so many terrible things… I…I was expecting it, but it hurt either way” Silent tears slipped out of his eyes during his speech, and Louis raised his hand to wipe them away gently.

“You know Harry, these people, they don’t hate you.” That earned Louis an incredulous look, but he continued “No, really, they don’t, you know why? ‘Cause they _don’t know you_. They just dislike an idea created by themselves, and that’s it. I know you take things personally, but this… you just shouldn’t, it isn’t about you, ok? Not at all.”

Harry was silent for a few moments, letting Louis words sink in.

“That makes sense, I guess” He said like he wasn’t really sure if he believed it or not.

“Of course it does, I’m clever like that” Harry smiled softly, nodding in agreement. Louis held Harry more tightly against him, kissing his forehead in the process “You’re such a good person Hazza, it’s impossible to hate you; you’re talented, polite, caring, honest… quite dense sometimes” Harry chuckled softly at that “but If only you saw what I can see.”

That made Harry chuckle with watery eyes, punching Louis lightly on the arm.  
“Quoting your own lyrics Lou? That’s sort of sad” But he was smiling his first real smile of the night, and that was something.  
  
Harry sighed deeply, after Louis words it was like he could breathe a little bit better, and the pain in his heart was slowly fading away.

“Thanks Louis, you don’t know how much you’ve helped”

“Anytime mate, anytime” Louis got out of the bed, ruffling Harry’s hair “Just get some sleep alright? And don’t forget what I said”

Louis walked towards the door while Harry was lying down, he turned the lights off, but before he could close the door Harry’s small voice broke the silence.

“Lou?”

“Yeah, Hazza”

“Could… could you stay here, please? I mean, only if you want to, I mean, you don’t have to, it’s just that I’d really like if you could, but it’s ok if you -“

Louis laughed softly, shaking his head “Stop mumbling and scoot over”

“Thanks Lou”

“You’re welcome”

“I’m really glad you’re here”

“I’m really glad I’m here”

“I don’t want you to go”

“I’m not going anywhere”

“I don’t know if we’re on the same page, but this, they will never let u-“

“Go to sleep Harry”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Night Lou”

“Nigh”

And so Louis lay there, with Harry sleeping curled up by his side, and his hands slowly carding through soft curls.

He was sure he’d never been to a better place.

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> That's it, my first fic ever, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Any love's always appreciated :)


End file.
